Debra Hails of Hartlepool, England tells
the following story:
I was waiting at
a customer service station at the store when the woman in front of me was
returning a disposable barbeque. When
asked why she was returning it she replied, “There was no meat in it.” The shop assistant patiently explained that
the disposable barbeque was simply to cook the meat and it did not include any
food. Whereupon, the customer looked
very embarrassed indeed. The assistant
checked the receipt and asked: “There are 3 barbeques on here, are you
returning the other two as well?” “I
can’t,” said the woman, “they are at home in the freezer.”
Nothing says Memorial Day Weekend like a
cookout. I don’t know if the framers of
the Lectionary had this in mind when they assigned the first reading to this
day, but it sure fits, what with the altars, the wood, the sacrifices, the
inability to get the darn thing to light, and finally the blazing fire. I don’t know about you, but this reading
makes me hungry and ready to do some grilling.
But the story known as ‘Elijah’s contest
with the prophets of Baal’ is not intended to get us in the mood for a cookout. It arises from a serious situation, presents
us with a serious question, and, in the end, raises other questions about the
nature of religion that are deeply troubling.
Here is the background. It is the 9th Century BC and Ahab
is the king of Israel. He is married to
Jezebel, the daughter of a Phoenician king.
Their parents arranged this marriage as part of the seal of a treaty
between their two nations. Jezebel is a
devoted adherent of Baal, the Canaanite god of rain and fertility. She sets up shrines to Baal and Asherah (his
wife) all across the region and constructs a temple in the capital city of
Samaria to be the worship center of her faith.
Then she persecutes the people who worship the God of Israel;
slaughtering leaders and prophets by the hundreds.
The prophet Elijah will have none of
it. He confronts Ahab in the name of
Yahweh – the true and living God – and pronounces a three-year drought on the
land as a way to show the powerlessness of the Canaanite god of rain. Ahab sets out to kill Elijah who must stay on
the run and fend for himself during this prolonged period of drought and
famine.
Finally, with today’s reading, Elijah
reappears and confronts Ahab on Mt. Carmel.
All of Baal’ prophets are there and according to the text every Israelite
is there too. The prophet, standing
alone, confronts them, “Why do you go limping forward with two different
opinions? If the Lord is God, follow
God. If Baal, then follow him.”
Baal worship had at least two things
going for it. First, it was tangible and
material. You could have your own statue
of Baal in your house. If it wasn’t
working the way you wanted it to, you could trade it in for one bigger and
better. The positive psychological
effect was exactly what we experience today when we buy a new suit or a new
sofa or a new cell phone. Material
things have the ability to make us feel good, at least for a while. Israelite religion strictly forbad any kind
of image of God. No part of the creation
was allowed to stand in for the Creator.
Baal worship, with its emphasis
on material things, offered an alluring alternative.
And speaking of alluring, here was the
second thing Baal worship had going for it: sex. It was woven right into the ritual of the
service and much of the debauchery condemned throughout the Old Testament is in
fact aimed at this practice.
So this sets the
stage for the cookout contest. As
weighty as Moses confronting Pharaoh, the destiny of the Yahweh faith hangs in
the balance. Elijah gives every
advantage to Baal’s followers. They set
up their sacrifice and pray for hours, but there is no fire. Elijah mocks them: “Maybe your god went to
beach for the weekend.” The prophets
wail, they dance, they even injure their bodies, but nothing happens. Whatever pride and prestige they had is transformed
into a bloody, impotent, pathetic mess.
“Why do you go on limping forward with
two different opinions?” Elijah’s
question to God’s people of that day is one we – God’s people today – need to
ask ourselves. When, where, why, and how
do we try to have it both ways: trying to be faithful to God while at the same
time shading it a bit so we can make it more comfortable to us? Elijah’s image of limping suggests that
trying to have it both ways does not lead to human flourishing. Ultimately it is detrimental to who God has
created us to be.
Now it is Elijah’s
turn to light his grill. Just as he gave
his adversaries every advantage, he does everything he can to put himself at a
disadvantage by pouring so much water over and around his altar that the
sacrifice could almost float away. Then
he prays to God and God’s fire falls with such force that it consumes not only
the offering and the water-drenched wood, but even the stone altar itself. The people need no more proof. They cry out, “The Lord is God indeed!” And with this the appointed reading comes an
end, but not the story. In the very next
verse, in an act of definitive judgment, the fire that consumes the offering
consumes all of the prophets of Baal and Asherah – 850 people in all.
Taken at face value,
this story seems to suggest our religion is the only ‘right’ one and, more than
wrong, everyone who believes something different is going to die. The history of religious warfare is not very
pretty and on this Memorial Day weekend those who have given their lives most
recently have done so to defeat Islamic extremism. Is our religion the only right one? Is violence in the name of God every
justified?
The gospel reading
helps us to think about the first question.
In it Jesus learns of a Roman Centurion whose beloved servant is
dying. He knows of Jesus’ ability to
heal and sends local elders to ask Jesus to come to his house. The elders say some remarkable things about
the centurion: he is worthy of a visit, he loves our people, and he built our
synagogue. The Roman soldier is not a
Jew. We are not told anything about his
personal religion and practice, but we certainly see the fruit of it. And while Jesus never actually meets him (he
heals the servant from a distance) he says he has never found anywhere in all
of Israel such an amazing, deep faith as the Roman’s.
Is our religion the
only ‘right’ one? Well, according to
this story there is a way to be an adherent to a different religion and yet
still be a person of faith whose life is exemplary. It is possible to worship in a different way
and still flourish as the person God created you to be.
Is violence in the
name of God every justified? Just as the
gospel proclaims there are good people in other faith traditions, the first
reading reminds us there are those whose religious beliefs and practices call on
them to harm, degrade, and kill others.
Ahab and Jezebel did not just institute a different brand of
religion. They hunted down and killed
those who were faithful to Yahweh.
When a religious
perspective leads to the persecution of a specific minority, all people of
faith must speak up and act. When a
religious perspective leads to violence, all people of faith must resist. When a religious perspective instigates indiscriminant
violence and death, all people of faith must stand and work together to make
the world safe for human flourishing. We
must challenge religious violence and terror with methods and means consistent
with God’s justice and righteousness. We
do not meet terror and violence by becoming like those who mean to do us harm,
but rather in ways consistent with who God created us to be.
Well, I could go on
exploring these big questions for some time if I wanted, but how about I let
what I have said marinate for a while and you can ponder them over your grill
this weekend.
